DATED: 26 August 2020 GAME CHANGE !!! OVERSIGHT OF 98% RECOVERY on dailies FROM APRIL TILL DATE ! DEALING WITH the FEAR PANDEMIC: MEDIA FU**ED IT UP
98% recovery shown as between 55% to 70% on Goan Dailies since May, happening all over India (Active Contractions included mistakenly in Recovery Rate % calculation) If the word in the headline was left up to your imagination, it reflected on the ethic of the journalist writing it, even if not meant in a bad way at all. This is also how stigma works. WORDS MATTER ! (Missing alphabets mentioned below). If all media houses without ETHICS, call us cases, COVID patients, victims, suspects and stigmatise us till death, what stops us from writing whatever we want ? Being sensitive is about journalistic ethic, and has nothing to do with any restriction on any freedom of speech, but Goa's media houses ignored this. So will freedom of speech back their published calculated figures of 60 to 70% as recovery rate ? Mathematics with their own figures and correct variables doesn't back this up. No doubt we were focusing more on increasing contraction when we should be curbing deaths that may happen with our 1 or 2 % as the priority, as these very media houses with figures reported. These very figures are still glaring at us from these very dailies (Times, Navhind, Herald, Goan, Goa News and all others who publish such reports), even now. Their very figures say 98% only if calculated. But for all those who read as was published (60 to 70%), the concern was OBVIOUSLY the remaining 40% and hence the panic. We apparently blindly accepted this in our anxious moments maybe; funny as it is. The concept of understanding the math to get percentages is something we learn in school. Its no different here. This needs no expert. See for yourself, this is not an opinion, its math - common to the whole world. No one can argue otherwise. Here, the required figures were clear, just that the wrong ones were used to calculate the percentage. THE ERROR - A VARIABLE Just dividing Total recoveries from Total contractions will NOT give recovery rate. This is the misinterpreted calculation giving us 60 to 70. Simply because from the Total Contractions, one has to carefully subtract the currently active contractions as these have NOT recovered. Once these are taken away, we get 'Closed contractions' (only the fully recovered). The division can then take place where Total Recoveries are divided by Closed Contractions to give you the percentage of recoveries. While the source websites do not give the percentages, this obviously points to the calculation. The error is missing the variable of active contractions. These bogus figures apart from 98, are printed by default since April, simply due to faulty variables in calculation. Had we known this earlier, would it have saved us some trouble is a question left to answer to all those readers who saw, maybe even quoted these, yet did not mentally register this. This proves a possible 'Fear Pandemic' given our mental health status. Thankfully, numbers don't lie; rest assured ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INCREASE & DEATH RATE: All deaths in Goa are with comorbidity as per media. To catch the bull here by its horns, at least now, if anti body tests are done, this plasma bank can help save lives, also claimed by the Health Department. This also means, while 'increasing' was the worry, FROM NOW onwards, the more the increase the more beneficial this is for plasma donations. Here, the 98% confirmed recovery game-changer actually REVERSES the worry to a benefit instead. The rest is helping everyone to fight this, with one's mind and positivism, and to create this environment from all aspects. Our diet and general health lifestyles are all that we can add to this. Condescending tones may have to go. WHAT THIS REVELATION ALSO MEANS: - Vaccine rat race pharma drama ends here ! >From just one particular region in Goa, "already about 500 over 70 years with >all sorts of comorbidity have FULLY RECOVERED" was confirmed by ward >counsellors. A lab reported a 70-year-old with bad lungs due to chronic cough >since 8 years, diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) >recorded three times the minimum required anti body count. Doctors confirmed >that vaccines would be of no use for all such recovered anyways. A >misconception to be cleared respectfully here, is that vaccine is only an >immunity booster and NOT a cure. Plasma therapy can safely be relied to get us >through as per our own medics. To be in a position here to judge this better, it would be nice to note here, that in the very ethics document provided to all Goan media editors from a notification from W.H.O. on ethical journalism and use of sensitive words, was this line clarifying that vaccine stories can add to the fear, that media had to be sensitive about this - 'Emphasizing efforts to find a vaccine and treatment can increase fear and give the impression that we are powerless to halt infections now. Instead promote content around basic infection prevention practices, symptoms of COVID-19 and when to seek health care' To erase past fear from misguided and coverage without ethic, especially in social media, hopefully the newspapers will help NOW, as all they have to do is use 8 words correctly to pass a COVID ethic test with their much-enjoyed freedom of speech. As vaccines stories are no more in the picture, when human immunity has helped 98% of us. EXITING A FEAR PANDEMIC - soothing the EQ and IQ ! For the decision making about worrying or not, with anything related to COVID-19, the choice here is between what we know and what we don't, what we can control, and admitting what we can't. The MAIN goal ultimately is for everyone to recover, with minimum death. Recovering from fear and stigma is of utmost importance to make matters good for ALL aspects. The grey area (after trial and error for 6 months to review from) was the rate of contraction increasing inspite of masks and social distancing - our only measures. This uncertainty has led to chaos and further stigma due to these very measures, including 'enforcement' which is DETRIMENTAL to our mental health in a pandemic. While social distancing NOT WORKING with us has been repeatedly ignored and denied, the W.H.O. and many more have confirmed masks INCREASING contraction rate without a proper risk assessment impact study to rule out counter productivity viz-a-viz productivity. This was the responsibility of decision makers of mask policies. Wet masks for instance are extremely counterproductive. Maybe we rethink when we see a mask on the road and ask ourselves - 'who will pick this up ?' After all, ALL LIVES DO MATTER ! PERSONALLY SPEAKING: While we hold our heads as we now realized that there was a lot more hype than was required, especially with the part about flaunting one's over cautiousness or over protectiveness, the reality is 98% recovery and thus way less dangerous. The only way ahead now is recovering from the fear after this point, accepting certain points as suggested above (only due to this revelation game changer, not me) and make a positive environment the only element mandatory everywhere, starting with front line workers. Since its 98% plus since 4 months, this includes 'maybe' opening the economy and comforting the confused tourists (sometimes invited, sometimes not). Having a nice laugh about how we got scared while we ALL went through this simple oversight is what is most prescribed by mental health standards. Going back to music entertainment in our lives to MAINLY de-stress and Atithi Devo Bhava. No fear. Stay positive. Be part of breaking the fear chain ! P.S. - It's **DG**. More info on FB page called PLAN C - with sources. Please acknowledge this as source for any referencing. No charge. Names of Goans who quoted in this article cannot be revealed due to stigmatization in the current soon-to-exit FEAR PANDEMIC as we now focus on MENTAL HEALTH and helping the human spirit. ARTICLE CREDITS: Everyone. Nothing is an original idea.
